Saturday, 11 December 2010

I am working on some ideas on creating a cosy, relaxed nook in the mezzanine area of the new house. I want a space where I can have my books, laptop, magazines and card making stuff and have as a chill out zone. So while I am not a 'girly' girl I do want it to be softer in design than other parts of the house.

The kitchen is a very sleek and glossy space and the dining and living areas will be quite modern in style. I do not want old fashioned funriture but I do want something that is more mid century than modern.

I also like textile designs that are colourful but are more naive in design - like Marimekko and Donna Wilson.

Donna is a Scottish artist who now works in London and has managed to grow her business without going the overblown way of Cath Kidston and Orla Kiely - both of whom have achieved hugely and in some ways had radical impacts on interiors over the past 20 years [and don't get me wrong, some of their textile designs are lovely]. However, while you can recognise a Donna Wilson design the same way you can a Kidston, it is not as ubiquitous. Wilson has managed to retain a sense of the handmade - mainly because she hasn't succumbed to factory production - and of not causing her customers to bump into the designs the way you do with an Orla covered laptop and Kidston patterned suitcases.

I love the owl and robin cushions -

I also like the seventies-esque flower cushion

And you must have a cosy blanket and I like this one which is called 'up the garden path' -

And while having a thundersome cushion may not seem nice and cosy I do like the cloud range of cushions -